In a landmark government ruling today, a British utility company has won the right to compel their customers to have water meters installed. It's probably a good thing, as their use tends to encourage less use, and the UK - with the south east in particular is facing a huge drought this summer.
What interests me is the inexorable move towards a metered society. Pay-per-view television. AOL wanting pay-per-email for businesses. Per-mile road tax. Advances in technology are allowing companies and states to be able to track our use of their wares more stringently, and thus get us to pay for our exact use.
A problem? Perhaps not. But the worrying trend we have seen, led by mobile companies and now taken up by many utilities, is to put a premium on pay-as-you-go services, and allow those with the capital to pre-pay effectively cheaper access. This is classic capitalism: if you've got money, you can more easily make more. Poverty is an expensive business.
As I outline in the book, one of the key challenges the church faces is to work out how best to offer an alternative to the all-pervading market economic. To be an organisation that has its gift-practice sorted will be to be a hugely prophetic and inviting place.
In a heavily metered world, grace, free, immeasurable, fully pre-paid, will surely become even more the most exquisite and beautiful thing people have ever encountered (until the collection plate is passed round.)
Technorati Tags: AOL, Grace, Capitalism, Taxation
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